Tolulope Oladele

I am presently employed as a Lecturer at the Department of Transport Management Technology, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. At present, I teach a 5-year course in Transport Planning which is entitled as Transport Technology and Systems after the 3rd year.  I have also been assigned five students to supervise their thesis for the present academic session. In addition, one of my responsibilities as a lecturer is to invigilate during exams. I also serve as a member of a number of committees within the department including Journal/Publication, Welfare, and Strategic Planning amongst others. I was recently appointed as a secretary for the department; this means that I’ll be in charge of writing minutes during departmental meetings.

I studied an MSc in Transport Planning at the University of Leeds. The course covered many topics and I was particularly drawn to Transport Modelling, Transport Research, Investment Appraisal, Planning and Policy, Data Collection and Analysis, Sustainable Land Use and Transport Planning. The rich theoretical and practical contents that these courses offered rang true with my desire to discover the nature of things and apply this knowledge in unique ways of solving new and challenging problems. As such, I was looking to develop specialist skills in this interdisciplinary field and build a successful career along this path. This is particularly helping my Lecturing career.

My experience at Leeds and also during the 2013 European trip has made me well equipped to share insights into how transport in Nigeria can be better utilized. I have been able to give my students practical examples of how transport systems in England and Europe operate with a view to motivate them and to encourage them to better transport planners.

My passion for Transport Planning can be traced back to my undergraduate days while I was studying Urban and Regional Planning. I wanted to do something that will help change the transportation system and outlook in Nigeria. More so, I wanted to study transport from the perspective of a planner. As such, I began an internet search for top transport schools in the world where I could get the best value. At the same time, I wanted a school that has scholarship opportunities for brilliant students from developing countries.  I came across the University of Leeds during my search, looked through their curriculum and felt it was the best place for me. Fortunately for me, I also got the Commonwealth Shared Scholarship to study my dream course.

Transport Planning is a very interesting course. It makes you feel you can influence the physical and economic condition of a city/nation by creating policies. In actual fact, you can!  It is also an interdisciplinary course which means that you can view transport from many different angles.